Quotations; Wine

Like all this encyclopaedia this is a ''living section'', and will be added to over the course of time.

'Absinthe has a wonderful colour, green. A glass of absinthe is as portical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset'. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

'A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk'. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

'All - or nearly all - red wine is the better for having just one or two drops of water poured into the first glass only. Why this should be I know not, but so it is. It introduces it. This admirable and little known custom is called Baptising wine'. Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), Advice c.1950

'A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.The Bible Timothy, 2

'A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.The Bible Timothy, 2

A Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly sent to a Lady'All love at first, like generous wine,Ferments and frets until 'tis fine; But when 'tis settled on the lee,And from th'impurer matter free, Becomes the richer still the older, And proves the pleasanter the colder' Samuel Butler (1612-1680) Miscellaneous Thoughts

'A man cannot make him laugh; but that's no marvel; he drinks no wine'.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Henry 1V, Part 2, 95

'A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside'. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) (On being encountered drinking a glass of wine in the street, while watching his theatre, the Drury Lane, burn down. 11.20

And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may,And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wineWas the bright dew, yet drained not by the day;And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) The Question

'And much as Wine has play'd the Infidel,And robb'd me of my Robe of Honour - Well, I often wonder what the Vintners buy . . . One half so precious as the Goods they sell.Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) 71 . . . the stuff they sell. 95 (ed.4)' And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) Wine and Water

'A serving-man, proud in heart and mind: that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it. Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk'.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) King Lear . 84'

'As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea, Descried at sunrise an emerging prowLifting the cool-hair'd creepers stealthily,The fringes of a southward-facing brow Among the Aegean isles; And saw the merry Grecian coaster come, Freighted with amber grapes, and Chian wine,Green bursting figs, and tunnies steep'd in brine; And knew the intruders on his ancient home,The young light-hearted Masters of the waves; And snatch'd his rudder, and shook out more sail, And day and night held on indigantly O'er the blue Midland waters with the gale, Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily, To where the Atlantic ravesr Outside the Western Straits, and unbent sails There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam, Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come; And on the beach undid his corded bales. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) The Scholar-Gipsy (1853), 1.1

'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.' The Bible Ephesians, 18

'Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and - sans End! Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859)

'Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! There's none of these so lonely and poor of old But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.These laid the world away; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to bern Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene, That men call age; and those who would have been, Their sons, they gave, their immortality' Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) The Dead

'But that which most doth take my Muse and me, a pure cup of rich Canary wine, Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine. Ben Jonson (1573?-1637) Inviting a Friend to Supper

'Claret is the liquor for boys; Port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. In the first place, brandy is most grateful to the palate; and then brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him. There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attained. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

'Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it'. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Othello 315

'Dark the streets, then wander forth the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine'. John Milton (1608-1674) Paradise Lost.

'Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities' The Bible. Timothy 23

Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I'll not look for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine; But might I of Jove's nectar sup, I would not change for thine. sent thee late a rosy wreath.

'Even when made less offensive by a trickle of sugar, absinthe still reeks of cooper, leaving on the palate a taste like a metal button slowly sucked'. Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907)

'Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now'. The Bible St. John 3.8

'Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine (Dick Swiveller) Charles Dickens (1812-1870) The Old Curiosity Shop Ch.7

'Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us, And fires us With courage, love and joy. Women and wine should life employ. Is there ought else on earth desirous? John Gay (1685-1732) The Beggar's Opera (1728) air xix

'Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him; a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.The Bible Ecclesiasticus, 10

'For when the wine is in, the wit is out' Thomas Becon (1512-1567) Catechism, 375

'Gin by pailfuls, wine in rivers, dash the window-glass to shivers! For three wild lads were we, brave boys, And three wild lads were we; you on the land, and I on the sand, and Jack on the gallows-tree! Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Guy Mannering (1815), ch.9

'Go, fetch to me a pint o' wine, an' fill it in a silver tassie. Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Go Fetch to Me a Pint 'Go, little book, and wish to all Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, A bin of wine, a spice of wit, A house with lawns enclosing it, A living river by the door, A nightingale in the sycamore! Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) bk.1.i.Envoy

'Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works'. The Bible. Ecclesiastes 7' Had I but died an hour before this chamce, I had liv'd a blessed time; for from this instant, There's nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys; renown and grace is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of'. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Macbeth 98

Have some wine, the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. I don't see any wine, she remarked. There isn't any, said the March Hare. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Ch.7

'He bringeth forth grass for the cattle: and green herb for the service of men; That he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man: and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the Lord also are full of sap: even the cedars of Libanus which he hath planted. The Prayer Book 14 'He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red, And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead'. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), pt. 1.

'He who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long' Martin Luther (1483-1546)

'Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thourn Beside me singing in the Wilderness - And Wilderness is Paradise enow. Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883)

'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,rnand he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? The Bible Isaiah, 55.1

'I am known to be . . . one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't'. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Coriolanus, 11.1

'I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.' W. C. Fields

"'I have heard people complain their wine was corked when they found a fragment of broken cork floating in the glass. When wine is truly corky, the cork is diseased and foul smelling, and the wine is more or less tainted. It should never be drunk in this condition . . . . it is for this reason that a small quantity of wine is invariably poured first into the host's glass for him to taste . . . . If the host is so barbarous as to taste and accept a corky wine, all that the guest can do is to refrain from drinking it and never come to that table again". Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), Wine in Peace and War, 1949

'I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people. They go commonly together'. Robert Burton (1577-1640) Democritus to the Reader, subsect. 13

'I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite - smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them'. Winston Churchill (1874-1965); (on discovering that his dining companion, the Arab leader Ibn Saud, neither drank nor smoked on religious grounds)

"In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined". The Bible. Isaiah, 25.6

'I pray you, do not fall in love with me, For I am falser than vows made in wine'. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) As you like It, 72

'I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite - smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them'. Winston Churchill (1874-1965); (on discovering that his dining companion, the Arab leader Ibn Saud, neither drank nor smoked on religious grounds)

'The First month of marriage is the honeymoon. The second is the absinthe moon'. Voltaire [Fran